27 December 2006

While Americans debate celebation of Christmas versus generic holidays, the Vietnamese unabashedly celebrate Christmas as a national holiday. In my observation, Vietnamese love parties and celebrations, in addition to being avid consumerists. They also love to sing, and Christmas carols provide many opportunities to sing in this season. Although statistics (81% non-religious??) indicate otherwise, Vietnamese are also highly spiritual or religious (at least in the south where I live). Therefore Christmas provides a wonderful opportunity to display their strong sense of design and community.

OK -- plenty of gross generalizations made here to ponder. Better to go to two sources that graphically and articulately show the response of Vietnamese to Christmas:

the final Word in Saigon presents several quality photographs of Christmas decorations around TP. Hồ Chí Minh. In my opinion, these decorations far surpass in design quality and quantity most of the decorations I see around the USA, including downtown San Francisco.

Thank you to Chris and Jon for offering their on-the-spot observations for those of us that went home for Christmas.

21 November 2006

Four weeks ago in a taxi I heard two Christmas songs in a row on the FM station tuned in on the car radio. The tunes were well-known Christmas hymns, but the lyrics were in Vietnamese, so I am guessing that they were still Christmas songs. Nevertheless, I thought it was an anomaly and didn't think much more of it for another week until I heard Christmas tunes in stores. Christmas decorations are now cropping up quickly in stores and public spaces.

My favorite café has a Christmas tree (fake) as well as a Christian crèche. Since 10% of Vietnamese are Christians, this is not unusual. Vietnamese do not seem to be afraid to display their religion. Almost all houses here in HCMC have either Buddhist altars or Christian symbols prominently displayed, often in neon on the roof top or balcony.

I assume for now that it will be unlikely to find a real Christmas tree here in Ho Chi Minh City, but I would be thrilled to be proven wrong. It has to happen before 8 December when I head back to the good ol' USA for a month.

27 December 2005

Many of my friends and family in the United States ask me about Christmas in Việt Nam -- they generally assume that Christmas is not celebrated there. Since we are back in the U.S. for the holidays, I have no experience with this other than my first Christmas away from home back in 1971 in Sài Gòn. There are many Catholic believers in Việt Nam, and there was a large church a block away from our hotel. On Christmas Eve, there was a large procession of church-goers around the church preceeding the mass. So my friend and I went down to join the procession and mass.

I am sure this Christian observance of Christmas in the many Catholic churches in Việt Nam continues. But I note that Christmas is also observed in a secular way by many other Vietnamese. Please click on over to the Vietnamese God and Xe Maybe blogs for photos of the decorations and activities observed in Hà Nôì. See Virtual-Doug for a Christmas tree in Huê.

In my experience in Việt Nam, Vietnamese love parties, decorations, and family activities, so it should not be surprising that Christmas provides this opportunity for them.

04 December 2005

My virtual-friend Virtual Doug posted on his blog today news about a Vatican Cardinal ministerial visit to Catholics in Việt Nam, and described (with wonderful pictures) a Eucharist celebration at the Phú Cam Cathedral in Huê.

I try to lead a life centered on Jesus Christ, and I had hoped to write occasionally in my blog about this, but have been unable to do so. I just can't seem to put matters of faith into words that might make sense to others. So it is good to see that these kind of events can provide a way to write about the Light of the World.

The question for some time in my mind as I have been planning to relocate to Việt Nam is how to maintain Jesus as the center of life while living in a non-Christian nation. Virtual Doug seems to have found attending the local Catholic worship services a way to do this, which is a reasonable choice considering the large number of Catholic churches in Việt Nam.

I wonder about attending services in a language I do not understand, though. Virtual Doug mentioned in his blog posting that while he did not understand the homily, he did understand the service just fine. Doug's home church is Episcopalian, while mine is Lutheran. Since both of these churches often follow the ancient liturgy of celebration of the Mass in worship services, it is fairly easy for us to follow along whether the service be in Latin, French, Vietnamese, or whatever.

But my own relationship with Jesus is best when I contemplate His Word as delivered in a homily by my Pastor, in the scripture readings, or in discussions arising out of Bible class study -- particularly the discussions with fellow believers. This is how my faith grows.

While I hope to maintain my individual Bible or devotional study while living in Việt Nam, it would be best to find fellow Christians there to carry out discussions enabling us to support each other in growing our faith. I pray that this will be possible in Ho Chi Minh City.